Private clinics win injunction against B.C. law that banned them

Private clinics embroiled in a decade-long legal battle against the B.C. government have scored a victory, after a judge ordered an injunction against provisions in a law banning private billing for medically necessary care.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janet Winteringham says in a written ruling released Friday that the constitutionality of the provisions must be determined at an ongoing trial. The decision means the government can’t enforce the provisions until June or pending another court order.

“The plaintiffs have established that there is a serious question to be tried in that … some patients will suffer serious physical and/or psychological harm while waiting for health services (and) some physicians will not provide private-pay medically necessary health services after the (provisions) take effect,” the ruling says.

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced this spring that starting in October, his government would begin enforcing provisions in the Medicare Protection Act that were first passed by the B.C. Liberals in 2003 but had never been enforced.

The provisions meant that doctors who charged patients for medically necessary procedures would face initial fines of $10,000.

Plaintiffs in the court case swiftly filed an application for an injunction and Winteringham ruled in their favour.

Dix told reporters on Friday that he was disappointed with the ruling.

“It takes away our ability to do what we’re obligated to do and we need to do, which is enforce the law,” he said.

“That said, the court case involved has been going on for 10 years and I’m a very patient person about court cases. I’m quite impatient, though, about improving patient care in B.C. That’s why we’ve proceeded so vigorously to take actions in increasing public surgeries, to reduce public wait times in the public health-care system.”

Health Canada fined the B.C. government $16 million because of illegal extra billing, so the “failure” of the previous government to enforce the act has cost taxpayers, he said. That amount of money could have paid for 55,000 MRIs, he added.